BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain should get a fair deal in the European Union but cannot impose its agenda on the bloc’s other 27 members, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday, weighing in on a sensitive issue in a tight British election race.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that if he wins Thursday’s election, he would hold a referendum on EU membership in 2017 once he has renegotiated EU treaties to wrest back powers from Brussels — notably a right to limit immigration within the 28-nation bloc.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Australia’s tough policies have stopped migrants reaching the country by boat and Europe will need strong will to tackle boat migrants in the Mediterranean, Australia’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Julie Bishop said NATO ambassadors had discussed the thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East taking to dangerous, overcrowded vessels to try to reach Europe, during a meeting in Brussels she took part in on Friday.

BRUSSELS, April 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine will ask the European
Union next Monday to send experts to eastern Ukraine to carry
out missions ranging from removing mines to training police, its
ambassador in Brussels said on Thursday.

Kostiantyn Yelisieiev said Ukraine would raise the issue at
a Kiev summit between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European
Council President Donald Tusk.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders, under pressure to act to stop more migrants dying in the Mediterranean, will agree at a crisis summit on Thursday to boost search and rescue operations and step up the fight against traffickers.

Public outrage over the death of up to 900 migrants last Sunday when their boat sank on its way to Europe from Libya has led EU governments to reverse last year’s decision to scale down search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – EU foreign ministers promised on Monday to do more to stop migrant deaths in the Mediterranean by increasing rescues and catching traffickers, stung by a weekend tragedy that killed up to 700 people off the Libyan coast.

Many European governments have long been reluctant to fund rescue operations in the Mediterranean for fear of encouraging more people to make the crossing in search of a better life in Europe, but they now face outrage over the refugee deaths.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – EU foreign ministers promised on Monday to do more to stop migrant deaths in the Mediterranean by increasing rescues and catching traffickers, stung by a weekend tragedy that killed up to 700 people off the Libyan coast.

Many European governments have long been reluctant to fund rescue operations in the Mediterranean for fear of encouraging more people to make the crossing in search of a better life in Europe, but they now face outrage over the refugee deaths.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU is considering sending warships to the Libyan coast to combat oil and arms smugglers but fears that could encourage more migrants to take to sea in hopes of being rescued and taken to Europe, according to an EU document seen by Reuters.

In a frank reference to EU fears that saving more lives could mean trafficking gangs put more people to sea in unsafe craft, the paper drawn up before Sunday’s mass drowning, warned of a “pull-factor risk” from a naval mission — a risk more migrants would head for Europe.

BRUSSELS, April 19 (Reuters) – The EU is considering sending
warships to the Libyan coast to combat oil and arms smugglers
but fears that could encourage more migrants to take to sea in
hopes of being rescued and taken to Europe, according to an EU
document seen by Reuters.

In a frank reference to EU fears that saving more lives
could mean trafficking gangs put more people to sea in unsafe
craft, the paper drawn up before Sunday’s mass drowning
, warned of a “pull-factor risk” from a naval
mission — a risk more migrants would head for Europe.

BRUSSELS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The European Parliament backed a motion on Wednesday calling the massacre a century ago of up to 1.5 million Armenians a genocide, days after Pope Francis used the same term.

Although the resolution repeated language previously adopted by the parliament in 1987, it could raise tensions with Turkey, whose President Tayyip Erdogan said even before the vote took place that he would ignore the result.

About Adrian

"I am part of Reuters UK reporting team, writing mainly about UK politics and foreign policy. My previous postings with Reuters were in Spain, Belgium, the United States, Colombia, Nicaragua and South Africa."